Teaching Copyright in the Age of Computers and Mashups

I wish I could say that teaching students about copyright is easy, because in a world where
digital tools are making creating and sharing content easier than ever, understanding copyright
is incredibly important. But intellectual property law is exceedingly complex, making even a
nominal introduction to the ideas surrounding copyright -- copyright law, fair use, the public
domain -- a challenge.

Google tried its hand earlier this year, launching YouTube Copyright School, an effort to educate the
video-sharing site's users about intellectual property law. Of course, YouTube has long had
to battle complaints and lawsuits -- most often from record labels and film studios -- that the
video-sharing site is awash in copyright infringements. YouTube does take measures to pull
content when an infringement claim is made, and it has had a longstanding policy to ban users
who repeatedly post videos that violate copyright. Now, instead, it's sending them to Copyright
School first.

Copyright School involves watching a 4-minute animation from Happy Tree Friends, then answering a series of multiple
choice questions. For those unfamiliar with Happy Tree Friends, the cartoon characters have
their own Web series which involves a lot of gibberish and mayhem. The short cartoons
(yes, you can find them on YouTube) often end violently. Very violently. Say what you will
about cartoon violence, but it's clear that these characters could appeal to a certain teenage
demographic that may well be apt to upload infringing material.

But the popularity of Happy Tree Friends aside, 4 minutes is hardly long enough to teach
the intricacies of copyright. And while the video starts with a pretty clear explanation of how
copyright works (thankfully with the help of a narrator, rather than the cartoon characters' typical
gibberish), when the video gets to the issues that most people probably do have questions
about -- particularly fair use and mashups -- the narration runs into high speed, brushing over
legalese like it's a joke. "Contact a copyright attorney" if you have questions or doubts about the
legality of a piece of content, the video suggests.

"Contact a copyright attorney." That's hardly something most students can do, and it's hardly
something teachers can say when questions about intellectual property are raised in their
classes. There are a lot of online
resources available, with ample explanations and exercises to help talk about copyright, it's also worth looking at
copyright issues in context, not just as a separate curriculum unit.

One way of doing this is by encouraging students to explore mashups, particularly by working
with openly-licensed content -- content that isn't
copyrighted -- as they do so. Then, as students cite, excerpt, rework, and mash up this content,
they can think about what re-use and fair use can mean. They can also explore what it means
to have their work taken up by others. How much content has changed? Does the new content
change the meaning of the old? Does it suit a different purpose? Does it change the market
value of the original? All questions that that copyright attorney (and typically, a judge) looks at
when gauging infringement.

This approach to intellectual property is something that the educational programming language
Scratch has explored. Scratch is openly licensed, and
when students upload their projects to the Scratch website, others are free to download and
re-use their programs. Members of the Scratch community explore what it means to give
attribution and credit to others, and as they're all creators, they understand what it "feels like" -
- for lack of a better phrase -- to have your work copied and shared. And frankly, sometimes,
they're not too thrilled with the idea.

These types of lessons help students understand what's at stake with copyright. It isn't simply
about plagiarism or some publisher's rights or business. Rather, it's part of a bigger challenge
of what it means to be creative and responsible in our digital world.

I have tried a backward approach (in addition to the regular ways) of teaching respect for the intellectual property of others. In my district, I developed a "permission to use student work" form that teachers had to give to students if the teacher wanted to keep great student work to share with other students, if the teacher needed classwork to submit as part of a grad course, if the teacher wanted to use it in a presentation, or if the school wanted to use it as a sample of student work for re-accreditation purposes. Form located here.

The idea was to get students to understand that explicit permission was needed to use the work of others outside of the fair use guidelines. We were hoping to make them understand, when they were not using Creative Commons-licensed materials, that permission from the creator needed to be obtained, just as we were obtaining their permission to use their creative content.

Kindergarten students love to learn about and use copyright. I generally start off by taking an item off a child e.g. hair clip. I wear it and look very happy with it. When they ask for it back or look surprised, I tell them I wanted it, so I took it. You get the idea... so do they VERY FAST! They hunt for copyright signs in books. I generally creates copyright fiends!

Aubrey,thank you, especially liked your Scratch example.
Kathy, excellent permission to use idea, making it meaningful to students and teachers... who are not always the best with copyright!
Thank you,I have learned lots from your great sharing on your blog.

Teachingcopyright.org gives great examples on how to teach students copyright. I found the lesson on remix culture, mashups, and copyright to be informative and interactive. The site provides videos, definitions and numerous activities. One in particular is a Stakeholder worksheet pertaining to the issue of music downloading and peer-to-peer file sharing. Students love music and having something that they relate to, to understand the concept is a great idea.